Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: R Excelsior FC Lambermontois (B) (1984-2008) / R Excelsior FC Lambermontois (2008-2023) / R Entente Lambermont-Rechain (B) (2023-)

Stade Léon Rodez - terrain 2, Lambermont (B pitch of R Entente Lambermont-Rechain, formerly A & B ground of R Excelsior FC Lambermontois)

Belgium, province: Liège = Luik

30 VII 2023 / R Entente Lambermont-Rechain B - RJS Olnoise B 3-1 / Liège, Provincial Cup P3-4

Timeline

± 1906 / Foundation of a first football club in Lambermont, Union Lambermont, which must have folded after no more than one or two years of existence.
1907 / Foundation of a new football club in Lambermont, which takes on the name Racing Club (RC) Lambermont. The club’s first pitch is a pasture owned by a local farmer, Mr Lambert, situated at modern-day Avenue des Villas.
1918 / Its activities having been severely curtailed due to the hardships of World War I and German occupation of Belgium, RC Lambermont concludes a merger with Skill from Verviers, forming Skill Racing Union (renamed SRU Verviers in 1932). All activities move to Verviers.
1919 / Refoundation of RC Lambermont as Excelsior Football Club Lambermont, undertaken by a group of disaffected Skill Racing Union members from Lambermont. The club finds a home ground on a pasture which is rented from a local farmer, Mr Vandenbroucke, at Lieu-dit Bruyère du Fourneau. Not being admitted by Belgium's FA as new member club, Excelsior FC Lambermont joins a rivalling association, the Ligue Wallonne.
1922 / Excelsior FC Lambermont allows itself to be absorbed by top flight side CS Verviétois – with Verviétois promising to pay Lambermont’s outstanding debts to Skill Racing Union as well as allowing Lambermont to reform after one season.
1923 / After one year under the aegis of CS Verviétois, Excelsior FC Lambermont is reformed, and accepted as members of the official Belgian Football Association. The club starts its life as an FA member in Liège’s Provincial League 3, recovering its old ground, Terrain Vandenbroucke.
1924 / Moving away from Terrain Vandenbroucke, Excelsior FC Lambermont settles at a new ground, referred to as Terrain Grands-Champs.
1926 / Moving away from Terrain Grand-Champs, Excelsior FC Lambermont settles at Terrain Wasay – in fact situated on nearly the exact location of Pitch 2 of modern-day Stade Léon Rodez. Upon Belgium’s FA introducing the matricule system, Excelsior FC Lambermont is assigned matricule 299.
1927 / After just one season at Terrain Wasay, Excelsior FC Lambermont moves to a newly laid-out pitch at Rue des Ormes.
± 1933 / Moving away from their pitch at Rue des Ormes, EFC Lambermont settles at Terrain Zurstrassen, in fact opposite the pasture where the club spent the first 10 years of its existence.
1946 / Moving away from Terrain Zurstrassen, Excelsior FC Lambermont settles at Terrain Sauvenier, situated at Rue d’Ensival.
1969 / Having disposed of just one pitch in the first 55 years of its history, EFC Lambermont now acquire a plot of land from a local farmer, Mr Minguet, which remains in use as a training pitch for the next 15 years. Also in 1969, the club acquires the royal epithet, thus becoming Royal Excelsior Football Club (R Excelsior FC or REFC) Lambermont.
1972 / Moving away from Terrain Sauvenier, R Excelsior FC Lambermont settles at a new main pitch situated at Route de Wegnez – in fact a meadow which it rents from the same owner as its B pitch, Mr Minguet.
1974 / R Excelsior FC Lambermont is expropriated of its main pitch, which is replaced by housing. The club is left with just its training pitch, which is temporarily used for matches as well. In the second half of the year, the club finds itself a new pasture on the other side of Route de Wegnez.
1975 / REFC Lambermont has to move its A pitch 6 metres due to the Route de Wegnez being widened. That same year, becoming a non-profit organisation, R Excelsior FC Lambermont undergoes an obligatory name change – though it is a merely cosmetic adaptation, as the club is henceforth officially known as Royal Excelsior Football Club Lambermontois.
1984 / Inauguration of REFC Lambermontois’ new ground at Beau Site on September 22nd, 1984. In honour of founding member and long-time club president, the ground is given the name of Léon Rodez (1901-1996), who attends the inaugural ceremony.
2008 / A synthetic surface is put in place on Pitch 2 of Stade Léon Rodez, the result being that first team football moves to this pitch (probably immediately) as well. The ground’s main pitch sees very little football in the following 15 years.
2009 / Finishing 15th in Liège’s Provincial League 3C, REFC Lambermontois drops back into P4 along with R Aywaille FC and bottom club RSC Tilffois.
2019 / Having finished runners-up in P4D in 2010 and 2018 (behind RFC Heusy-Rouheid and AC Soiron respectively), R Excelsior FC Lambermontois now clinches the title in P4F, 8 points ahead of closest followers R Entente Rechaintoise B, thus returning to P3 after 10 years.
2023 / In its last season as an independent club, REFC Lambermontois finishes in 14th place in Liège’s Provincial League 3D. The club concludes a merger with R Entente Rechaintoise, resulting in the foundation of R Entente Lambermont-Rechain, which retains Lambermont’s low matricule 299; Rechaintoise’s matricule 3905 is erased from the Belgian FA’s official lists. As Rechain’s Terrain Les Tourelles is abandoned, all activities move to Stade Léon Rodez in Lambermont. First team football is moved to the old grass pitch, which had seen very little activity since 2008, while all other teams play their football on the synthetic B pitch.

Note – The main source for the information above is a booklet published on the occasion of the club’s 75th anniversary in 1994, “1919-1994 75ème anniversaire Royal Excelsior FC Lambermontois”; sadly, no name of an author of this precious publication is given.